


Red Iron

by dankou



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Death, Gen, Mercenaries, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 08:02:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18616516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankou/pseuds/dankou
Summary: Hawke and Carver have their first official contracted kill under the Red Iron Mercenary Company.





	Red Iron

It was definitely a surprise to Carver when his brother had decided on taking up Meeran’s offer with the mercenaries. Xavier was many things, but not a killer. Though the idea of a mage being caught smuggling by Templars would probably be riskier than working under the Red Iron who could pay for people’s silence, Carver supposed.

Their first job officially under the Company was a welcome escape from Gamlen’s dank and dirty hovel. At least Carver thought so, anyway. Xavier, however, was quieter than usual. He had a serious look about him as he firmly tied the laces of his boot.

“Nervous, brother?” Carver smirked, securing the blade on his back.   
Xavier stood with a grin,  
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Hawke then equipped his staff over his shoulder – now modified with a blade on the end in some piss-poor attempt to disguise his weapon from Templars – and his potion pouch strapped to his hip, and they head off.

Their job was to locate a man called Edwin, a stocky fellow with flaming red hair and a golden tooth, who had double-crossed the Red Iron for gold and fled to the docks to try to secure passage out of the city, and kill him.

As they headed to the location of the hit, Carver glanced to his brother walking beside him who was wearing that serious look once again. He knew Xavier was dreading what was to come. He’d only ever fought for self-defence, whereas Carver was a soldier. Killing an enemy on command was part of the job. Though, he’d much prefer more honest work.

However, he didn’t have the luxury to want such a thing. He would do anything to secure his family’s safety, even if it meant going against his own moral compass. His main concern was whether his older brother had the stomach for what they’d signed up for. Not that they had much of a choice to start with.

Passing down the flight of steps down to the docks, they scanned the area discreetly for any suspicious activity.

“D’ya see anything?” Carver asked, squinting from the light reflecting off the water.  
“Nothing yet. Wait—” A glimmer of gold caught Xavier’s eye from afar. A man by Edwin’s description had scurried off into what looked like a shadowy alley. “Over there!”

They hurried in that very direction, only to be met by a gang of armed thugs. They counted about four in their path.

“Hirelings? But Edwin’s going to miss all the fun!” Xavier sneered, readying his staff with a swing and championing a cocky grin.   
“How generous giving us a nice warm up,” Carver scoffed, blade grasped firmly at the ready.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the thugs charged their attack towards the brothers.

With great force, Carver swung his heavy plank of a greatsword, cutting cleanly through the waist of one of the hirelings and just missing another who dodged the attack. Leaping quickly to Carver’s side, they pointed their daggers forward towards his torso in attempt to catch him off guard.

Before the blades could meet his flesh, however, Xavier conjured a fireball and hurled it towards the rogue, flames tearing at the sorry blighter’s skin.

The brothers’ eyes met in acknowledgement before turning their attention to the remaining foes. Upon regaining focus, Carver sprinted at his target with a gravelly yell, leapt up into the air and pelted his blade down, causing sparks as it dented the enemy’s shield and brought them to their knees.

In the same action, the last hireling whipped their sword ferociously at Xavier who just about reacted in time to block the attack with the blade of his staff. But the attacks were quick and relentless. Hawke struggled to keep up with each blow.

Carver glanced briefly back at his brother and gritted his teeth with determination. Swiftly, he disarmed the enemy beneath him and slew them, hardly breaking a sweat. He then hurtled their now deformed shield at his brother’s attacker, stunning them long enough for Xavier blast them back and skewer them with an ice pike.

Taking a moment to breathe, they both put their weapons away and composed themselves.

“Well, that was quite the workout!” Xavier jested, making light of the situation. As always.  
“We can’t rest yet. We still need to get Edwin.”   
“Details, brother, details.” Xavier shrugged, met with an eye-roll from his brother.

Hastily, they paced towards the alley they saw Edwin disappear into. It was sheltered in shadows cast by the surrounding buildings and dimly lit with lanterns. There was an unshakable smell of sardines, ale and vomit that encompassed this narrow walkway. Straight ahead was a dead-end and either side of them stood two identical doors only distinguishable by a half-assed tavern sign with the words _‘The Chunky_ _Seaman’_ scribbled onto a rotting slab of wood next to one of the doors.

But more importantly, Edwin was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn…slippery…bastard!” Carver growled in frustration, “Now what?”  
“Well, he can’t have gone nowhere,” Xavier sighed, inspecting their surroundings.  
“Then what do you suggest?” asked Carver, audibly losing his patience.

After a quick moment of thought, Hawke decided on a plan of action.   
“I’ll have a look in this tavern and you that take door. We have to be quick, though.”  
“Is that the best you’ve got?” Carver folded his arms, unimpressed.  
“Have you got a better idea?”  
“S’pose this is better than no plan,” he huffed, “Fine. Let’s get to it.”

Xavier turned to face the tavern door and sighed, reading the sign before heading in reluctantly.  
_“The Chunky Seaman?_ That sounds almost as dirty as this place smells. Lucky me.”

Carver grasped the door dandle firmly and pushed the door forward, only for it to abruptly make contact with some large heavy object wedged in front of it. His eyebrows furrowed with suspicion and took a step back.

He stretched his arms and then shook them by his sides, bouncing on his feet. Letting out a deep breath, he braced for impact and went for the door, hoping to invite himself in on brute force.

The door was forced open enough for Carver to squeeze his way through the gap into the building.

“Edwin!” he yelled impatiently, but was met with an echoing silence.

He observed every nook and crevice of his surroundings. The walls and surfaces were dusty with patches growing fungus. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and broken stair railings. Old wooden crates seemed to litter the room around him. It must have been some kind of abandoned warehouse.

Every step Carver made let out a creak in the floorboards beneath his feet. He kicked off some of the lids of the crates only to find dead decaying fish and a swarm of flies. There seemed to be scraps of rusted metal scattered around, but indistinguishable in this low light.

He headed upstairs but it was pretty much the same story up there too. Crates of dead fish, scraps of metal and what he could make out as broken weaponry in the tiny stream of light that filtered through the cracks of the boarded-up windows, but not a soul in sight.

Carver wondered if his brother’s search was more fruitful than his.

The stench of vomit and ale became much more potent as Xavier stepped inside this shady alley tavern. The smell was so foul he could feel his eyes water.

Xavier’s eyes darted around the surprisingly packed room full of people for any sign of Edwin. He had a few larger men collide into him and spill their booze on his trousers, much to his disgust, but he figured if anyone’s going to know who journeys in and out of this place, it’s the barmaid.

Hawke strutted over to the bar, leaning an elbow on the counter and quirking a brow.  
“So, The Chunky Seaman? You guys have seen a healer about that, I reckon?”

The bartender snorted, running a cloth in one of the tankards.   
“Used to be called _The Seaman’s Hollow,_ but ‘The Chunky Seaman’ rolls off the tongue better.”  
Xavier grimaces, “Not in my experience.”  
“Aye,” the bartender tips her tankard, “But you know what I meant.”

The barmaid was an older woman; brown and grey hair like salt and pepper, a broad and bulbus build with a missing finger and a glass eye.

The woman placed the tankard on the countertop and cocked a brow in curiosity.   
“What can I do for ye, lad? A dapper young fella like you don’t belong in a place like this, I tell ye.”  
“Well, I was actually looking for a man…” Xavier began, only for the barkeep to chime in with jest.  
“Between you and me, tyke, ye ain’t gonna find a good boy toy here!”

The woman let out a bellowing cackle, holding onto her stomach as she threw her head back. Xavier laughed, shaking his head.   
“Not that kind of man, love.”

Once the barmaid settled down, she rested her hands on the sides of her apron and leaned against one of the wooden posts behind the bar.  
“Who ye lookin’ for then, my lovely?”

Xavier leaned closer with discretion.   
“A stocky bloke. Red hair and a golden tooth. Goes by the name of Edwin,” he described in a more hushed tone.

The woman nodded slowly in thought, “Aye… Aye…”

For a moment, she didn’t speak and Xavier wondered if she’d even give him any information. She didn’t exactly know him after all.

He waited anxiously for a response, but then finally, she spoke once more.  
“I know of whom you speak. Out back. Storage room on the left.”  
“Thank you—”  
“And also,” she interrupted, “Keep the mess to a minimum, darlin’. It’s my girls that gotta clean up after ye.”  
“Noted.”

“Any luck?”  
Xavier hadn’t even noticed Carver enter the tavern and walk up behind him. The barmaid had turned her attention elsewhere allowing Xavier to turn to his brother.  
“We’ve got our guy.”

As subtly as they could, they both slipped through the crowd and out into the hallway around the back of the bar. Xavier gestured a nod to the storage room on the left like the barkeep instructed, and then tried the handle on the door.

Locked.

Hawke turned to Carver sharing a knowing look, and stepped out of the way. Carver then stood before the door and forcefully kicked it open.

There he was. Edwin.

Despite his jacked appearance, his demeanour radiated fear. He was backed up against the wall cornered, pointing an axe towards the brothers.  
“Help must be hard to come by if Meeran’s sent a couple dog lords after me, heh.”

Xavier folded his arms across his chest.  
“Story goes you double-crossed our boss.”

“And so, what if I did?” Edwin spluttered defensively.

With just a wave of his hand, Xavier knocked the blade out of Edwin’s shaky poor grip.  
“So, now you have to die.”

Hawke reached for his staff and flung it round so the blade faced Edwin’s chest in one fluid motion, ready to strike.

“—Wait!” Edwin pleaded, falling to his knees.

Xavier froze in his stance, not faltering.

“Please, let me go! You would do the same in my shoes!” Edwin’s hands were clasped together desperately as he peered up at Xavier pathetically.

“Don’t listen, brother,” Carver interjected, “We have a job to do.”

“I was offered a better deal for giving information on the Red Iron! Please, I have a family to feed!”

Xavier hesitated. He also had a family to feed. Edwin’s plead struck Xavier hard and Carver could see it.

“If you let me go, Meeran doesn’t have to know! I will leave without a trace!”

The room was static for a moment. Hawke could feel guilt whirl within him as conflicting feelings danced around his mind. Did he have it in him to do such a thing? To kill a man for doing what he had to for his family? Or should he let him go?

At this point, Carver had slowly reached for his dagger, waiting for his brother to make a move. And when that move didn’t come, he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

He stepped forward coldly, gently pushing his brother’s staff to one side. He remained deadpan through Edwin’s cries for mercy, Xavier still frozen wide-eyed in his spot.

Carver grabbed the cowering man’s shoulder and yanked him to his feet, instantly running the knife through his chest. As the body went limp, he let the body fall to the ground lifelessly.

“What did you do?!” Xavier cried to his brother who stood with a now bloodied knife with his back to him.

Carver turned his head to his brother, eyes staring blankly at him.  
“What you couldn’t.” His tone was dry and blunt.

For the first time ever, Hawke feared his brother. The man stood in front of him was no longer his innocent kid brother. This was a man who knew death; who knew war; who knew survival.

Carver knelt down next to the fresh corpse and began hacking at the man’s jaw with the handle end of his knife.

“That’s disgusting!”  
“Meeran wants proof we carried out the kill, how about a golden tooth?”

The blood-soaked gold tooth fell into Carver’s palm and then he wiped away the crimson on his trouser leg before tossing it over to his brother, who cringed upon holding it.

“Charming,” Xavier winced in repulsion before placing the severed tooth in his pouch.

The younger Hawke scanned the room and then pointed a dusty old rug wedged in a corner between the wall and the dresser.  
“Help me with that, will you? We need to dump the body.”  
“You’re awfully knowledgeable about this, dear brother.”  
“Tch. Overheard some merc’s mention it. I don’t go around dumping bodies on the daily, y’know.”

Xavier shook his head dismissively and laid out the rug on the ground. Carver put his knife away and dragged the body onto the rug, and together they rolled the corpse into it. Finally, Carver lifted the rug-covered body over his shoulder and they snooped around for a back exit to the tavern.

Just as they found what looked like an exit, they bumped into what they could only assume was one of the younger barmaids.

She stood frightened at the sight of two men blood covered with a suspicious looking rug and looked about to scream, but Xavier frantically shushed her.

“We’re just here for the rug,” he lied, “You never saw us.”

She nodded apprehensively and scurried away as silently and quickly as possible.

The brothers hurried out the back door onto what appeared to be another dark alleyway.

“So, what are we going to do with the body? Throw it into the harbour?” Xavier questioned, pacing with slight panic.  
“In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s the middle of the day! We can’t just drag out a body in broad bloody daylight.”  
“Then what do we do?”

They stood in desperate thought for a while, contemplating what they should do. They’d never done something like this before, it’s not like they were experts. Before this they’d only killed people out of self defence and darkspawn. Never anything this shady.

“Got it,” Carver exclaimed.  
“Care to share?”  
“Sewers.”  
“I damn well hope you’re willing to go down there because I sure won’t.”

Carver groaned and rolled his eyes as if his brother was the dumbest person in all of Thedas.   
“Look there,” he said, gesturing to the manhole on the ground slightly further down the alleyway, “You get that thing open and I’ll drop him down there!”  
“Right. Gotcha.”  
“Andraste give me strength!”

And so, that’s what they did. Xavier lifted the manhole for Carver to drop the body, and then he re-covered it.

“Job done. Easy!”   
“Surprised you didn’t wet yourself, Xav.”  
“Maker forbid I not be accustomed to killing people for money as of yet.”

The Hawke brothers reported back to Meeran on the mission’s success, handing over the tooth as proof, receiving coin and a remark about how Edwin will “rot amongst the shit and piss like he deserves”, and that was that.

Hawke being Hawke, of course, talked up the story to be a bit more exciting than it actually was with the other mercenaries while Carver sit back and listened with an ale chiming in here and there.

Xavier never hesitated on killing someone he’d been contracted to kill from then on.

The coldness in his younger brother’s eyes as he ended that man’s life stuck with him. There was no way he could allow Carver to have that weight on his shoulders. He couldn’t live with himself if he let his only living sibling become a cold-blooded killer. Not if he could help it.

And if that meant he had to carry the burden of every death himself, then so be it.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Carver Week!


End file.
